Artyum, a Boy of Lake Baikal

Artyum, 13, lives near Lake Baikal in a village so tiny the school has only 12 students. Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake on the Eurasian continent, located in southern Siberia, in the Russian Federation, just north of Mongolia. The winters are bitterly cold, with temperatures dipping down to more than 20 degrees below zero (F). Traditionally, the village industry is fishing, but because of past overfishing in the lake, only a small number of permits are issued, leaving many families almost destitute. Villagers without permits nonetheless find that the only way they can support their families is to fish illegally, but if they’re caught, they face large fines and even time in jail – and their families face even greater hardship. Artyum dreams of driving a train locomotive on the trans-Siberian railway when he grows up.